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Bleeding After Sex During Menopause – WHAT To Know
September 7, 2022
What do you do if you start bleeding after sex during menopause?
How does the postcoital bleeding journey proceed after menopause?
Today let’s talk about the causes and some investigations or tests you should have when you start bleeding after sex once you hit menopause.
Menopause means the end of menstruation and is the time when a woman gets to the end of her reproductive cycle.
Here are the things that happen in menopause:
Menopause is “technically” not a health condition, as many women come to this stage of their lives without any problems.
However, a small group of ladies can experience distressing symptoms before, during or after menopause.
Please check out our videos to learn about menopause symptoms.
Many women are likely to start the transition into menopause around 45 years or so. Most reach menopause at about 48 to 51 years on average.
When it comes to sex, many things around menopause can lead to bleeding problems. Let’s look at 3 of them.
So how does the postcoital journey in menopause run?
The usual story goes like this:
A woman who has stopped having her periods suddenly develops some bleeding during or after sex.
It may be heavy or light (like spotting).
The bleeding may occur with or without pain. There may or may not be other symptoms, like vaginal discharge or itching.
These events should prompt a visit to the doctor. They will take a lot more information from you and arrange a physical examination.
The symptoms mustn’t be ignored, please.
Remember we said that at menopause, certain conditions like cancer occur more often?
So we must arrange tests to see if the cause of postcoital bleeding is from grave causes like cancer of the cervix or womb cancer.
The assessment starts with the doctor’s questions to explore the symptoms and then a physical examination.
Some of the questions are:
The physical examination will involve an intimate examination of the vagina and cervix using the speculum.
This may reveal skin conditions like LS. It might also show the vagina is atrophic. In addition, there may be other changes like ulcers or an abnormal appearance in the vagina, vulva or cervix.
Depending on the initial findings, the next step includes arranging a pelvic scan or referring directly to the gynaecologist for more specialised tests.
These can include a camera test to visualise the cervix and womb, taking tissue samples from these areas and so on to identify cancer if it is present.
Treatment will vary and depend on the cause in each case of menopause bleeding after sex.
The key takeaway is that it should never be ignored; it is vital to establish a cause.
Many times the causes can be treated – infection, atrophic vaginitis, or friction associated with low libido from mood problems or stress can be addressed in different ways.
Detecting cancer and treating it early is extremely important, so we encourage women not to ignore this symptom.
More Reading
Editing By AskAwayHealth Team
Disclaimer
All AskAwayHealth articles are written by practising Medical Practitioners on various health care conditions to provide evidence-based guidance and to help promote quality health care. The advice in our material is not meant to replace the management of your specific condition by a qualified health care practitioner.
To discuss your condition, please contact a health practitioner here.
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